Dr. Haass Social Assistance Fund

Dr. Haass Social Assistance Fund is the first non-profitable non-governmental charitable organization (NPO) in the Soviet Union, founded on November 26, 1987 in Odessa (USSR). It is named after a famous Russian philanthropist, "Saint Doctor", Friedrich Joseph Haass (1780–1853).

The most comprehensive official study of diverse charitable activities of the Fund has found its documentary reflection in the report of the Standing Committee on Social Policy of the Odessa City Council on May 17, 2000 as well as in the documentary film about the activity of the Fund Independent experts of the Standing Committee estimated the Fund charitable assistance to people in need, and to social institutions, at a total amount of more than eight million US dollars, as of 2000.

Graduates of the Faculty of Law of Odessa State Mechnikov University (OSU) Oleg Kutateladze and Alexander Muchnik were the founders of the Fund. OSU Professors supported the creation and formation of the Fund: the Head of the Department of Philosophy Tamara Tarasenko (1939–1992), who became the first chairman of the boardof the Fund, and the Dean of the Faculty of Law, Doctor of Law, professor, Academician Anatoly S. Vasilyev (1938–2015), who became a member of the Board of the Fund.

During its philanthropic mission the Fund has created and funded a number of charitable organizations and programs that provide social, medical and psychological assistance to a large number of lonely elderly people, the disabled, war and labor veterans, sick children, as well as financial support to kindergartens, schools, hospitals and health centers, various social institutions.

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